Traditionalist Discworld art collectors will be delighted to learn
that the Josh Kirby estate is offering a selection of Kirby's
Discworld art to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first
Kirby/Pratchett collaboration.

Also, an unexpected intersection of (fantasy) worlds: it turns out
that Music with Rocks In veteran Tony Harnell is married to the
owner- director of the Josh Kirby estate. So here's something you
won't see every day on a heavy rock site -- the name Terry
Pratchett:

Yes, a Texan university-students production of Wyrd Sisters hit the
stage in Houston earlier this month, courtesy of the Rice Players.
Sadly, according to this long, intelligent and thorough review of
cast and crew versus play, the cast and crew came a poor second. But
American productions of Discworld plays are a good thing to see
happening!

"The play, based on Terry Pratchett's novel from the Discworld
series and adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs, rests upon a web
of light-hearted fantasy threaded with wit and charm. Largely a
parody of Macbeth, the story offers a raucous romp through a
storyline well-trodden by readers of Shakespeare or Tolkien... The
actors of Wyrd Sisters do an admirable job of tackling a script so
chock-full of punny wordplay and fast-paced dialogue, but the entire
cast could use a burst of energy to propel them to the final
curtain. Too often throughout the show, the audience is treated to
what feels more like a guided reading than an actual performance..."

The all-genres literary website Books and Authors has reprinted a
superb lit-crit essay, Terry Pratchett: The Soul of Wit, by Faren
Miller. Originally published in Contemporary Literary Criticism 197
(2004), this articulate, well-researched piece examines and
critiques the development of the Pratchett oeuvre and its underlying
themes, from the earliest novels through to the most recently lauded
young reader books at the time. Well worth a read! Some sample
extracts:

"Pratchett is no stereotypical epic fantasist incapable of telling a
story in fewer than three volumes, or a dull artisan stamping out
endless variations on the same scenario. Over the years he has honed
his skills as observer and ironist - which is to say moralist --
into a lean, flexible instrument that can skewer absurdities in the
space of a paragraph and deal with any mode from slapstick to
tragedy in the course of a largely self-contained narrative, with
Discworld as his stage."

"Stripped of their grandiose theatricality or aura of supernatural
mystery, Discworld's aristocrats, witches, wizards, and multitude
of uncanny creatures can become all too human... Pratchett
chronicles the mishaps that ensue, threatening the very fabric of
reality, with a journalist's eye for detail: literalized, the
cosmos that metaphysicians regards with awe becomes a matter of
simple cause and effect, governed by absurd yet tidy logic."

Welsh super-knitter Sally Pointer has designed a fabulous Grim
Squeaker egg cosy, and Kentuckian knitter (and self-confessed "huge
Terry Pratchett fan") Suzanne the Knitting Samurai had a very
successful go at Sally's pattern. The results are...well, DANGER!
CUTENESS ALERT! -- in other words, wonderful! For a photo of the
finished creation and Suzanne's comments, go to her blog:

Micro Art Studio have posted photos of the "greens" for three
awesome new 30mm miniatures in their Discworld figurines collection.
This time it's the Librarian, Cohen the Barbarian, and Death with
his Soul Music guitar. These are possibly the best ones to date. No
idea of the release date yet, but watch this space...

"A bookseller from Bakewell in Derbyshire recounts how an
'unassuming, doddery old lady' would come to the shop every week and
steal a novel by Terry Pratchett, the author of the hugely popular
Discworld fantasy series -- who, incidentally, is the most stolen
author in the UK. Police eventually found some 60 Pratchett books on
the old lady's shelves."

A very interesting article in The Times Online about who steals
books and why (apart from those readers whose need for a Pratchett
fix outstrips their budgets, of course):

Author Christopher Moore's tale of a dreadful heckler at one of his
book signings, and how he admired Pterry's equanimity when
confronted by the same horrid old lady at his own signing in San
Francisco:

Here be a further article about proposed "memory clinics" for
Alzheimer's sufferers. The page includes a short video of Pterry
(looking charming in a Fourecksian drover's coat) talking about the
future of Alzheimer's treatment:

And another quiet month turns out to be a not-quiet month. Very
special thanks as always to the Newshound Gang, the most excellent
Colin Smythe, the vital news conduit Sandra Kidby of PJSM Prints,
the very odd student body of Roundworld's Bugarup University, and
the nice people who made it possible for our household to watch
Terry Pratchett: Living with Alzheimer's. Now it's time for your
Editor to get some sleep. See you next month!

-- Annie Mac

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End of Part 5.
If you did not get all five parts, write: interact@...
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Copyright (c) 2008 by Klatchian Foreign Legion

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